Examine: Is Equality Attainable?

Equality has been a huge topic since Trump became president. People of color, LGBT, women and immigration being the center concerns.
We want equality across the board. I would hate if I have a Mexican daughter in the future and she gets ridiculed for being a women AND Mexican. But that wouldn’t even matter with this new perspective.
Equality can never be achieved. We are stuck in a circle.

Sure we can get more people of color in STEM, or more women in positions of power, but what about everything else before that. Like the school system? If you live in a lower income community, you have to go to the public school in your neighborhood. Now lets look at two different schools in San Francisco based on community. We’ll look at Mission High School, which is in one of the lower income communities, and George Washington High, which is in one of the higher. Both are public schools. Sources will be posted down below.

Drop Out Rate
George Washington High (out of 2,001 students): 7% drop out rate
Mission High School (out of 995 students): 20% drop out rate

There could be many reasons why the numbers are so different, but it is interesting that the lower income public school’s drop out rate is a lot higher. 13% difference. Why are more kids in lower incomes prone to drop out? Lets look at test scores.

Who cares about the color or gender of the students. There are 1000 more kids going to Washington, yet they still have higher test scores. The students at Mission are clearly not getting the SAME education as people in George Washington. I’m just looking at these numbers to explain a new version of inequality that doesn’t regard anything superficial. Are lower income students not getting the same education? Why are their test scores significally lower than those at George Washington?
College acceptance is also unequal. Sure they do meet a quota of accepting certain demographics, but it is still the concept of applicants all trying to be better than each other. Taking account that the George Washington test scores are higher than Missions, those kids will have a better chance of getting accepted. Then when you apply for jobs after you graduate, you are competing with a bunch of other resumes. Those resumes might have ‘better’ colleges. The ones kids from George Washington chances of getting into those ‘better’ colleges is significally higher than those in lower income.
I think looking deep into these details can help bring clarity to why we see inequality in the job market. Sure, it could be that hiring managers don’t want to hire people of color, but could it also be that people of color are not being prepared for STEM jobs as well?

Instead of looking at the hiring, we should look at the system that gets you there in the first place. Why are kids in lower-income communities struggling more in high school? Why are there drop out rates higher? It is literally a circle system here. Because now Hispanics and African-Americans that went to Mission will struggle to get higher education at a better university. Which will keep them in lower income communities. And will make their kids attend those schools and repeat the process.
Just a thought. What do you think?
Source: Mission High School Statistics, George Washington Statistics

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